The was our first cruise on Carnival having sailed several time with Disney and RCCL in the past. For a 10 year old ship the Paradise is in good shape. The cabin bathrooms are very large and there is a lot of storage space in the cabins. As usual on a cruise, the cabin staff, and the dinner staff were great. That is about where the good news about the Paradise ends.

The 3 day Baja sailing is a "booze cruise". If you are traveling with children this cruise is not for you. We saw people vomiting on the ship (calm seas), urinating over the side, a 280 pound man who thought it would be fun to wear a woman's bathing suit bottom in the hot tub, and language that you would not want your child to hear. Although we have noticed ship security on past cruises, on this cruise they had 2 security people posted at the pool at all times, and we saw many drunks being escorted by security at night.

Even if you remove the drunks, the cruise still has problems. There was no live deck band, no Lido deck sail away party (or any Lido deck parties at all), the slide pool was open only 1 out of 3 days, and the pool "water wars" area was only open for 30 minutes during the whole cruise. Unlike other cruises, if you bought the child soda card, you then had to buy the soda mug for an additional fee. Gives you the feeling of being nickled and dimed. Read more